John Tortorella doesn’t expect Ian Cole to stand up in the locker room and share his experiences of the past two springs with the Penguins.

The defenseman remains a relative newcomer to the lineup and does not have a letter of leadership sewn on his No. 23 sweater. But while the Blue Jackets aren’t his team, the Stanley Cup playoffs are his territory, and Cole knows better than most the range of emotions involved in a long playoff series.

In winning back-to-back Cups, he understands what it’s like to face elimination, to endure scoring slumps and, yes, survive a blown two-game series lead to the Capitals.

Been there, won that.

“(It doesn’t have to be) a structured setting talking about what’s happened in some of the ebbs and flows of a series,” Tortorella said. “(It can be) just joking around with some of the goofy things that went on when they lost a game and they were so down or whatever it may be over a beer or over a dinner. I...

SALE: Free trial and 30% off

Try The Athletic free for a week to get access to this article and more smart, in-depth coverage. Read and support quality journalism with this limited-time offer.